I'm trying to be a bit more organized in my personal financial situation these days. One question that I've come across is how much cash to keep on hand. Not for spending, directly, but quickly available dollars that I don't need to go to an ATM for.

My wife always carries cash, on the premise that it helps her control spending. She'll take out a couple hundred from the ATM to use for all her shopping and errands, and it will last her a couple of days to a week or more depending on what's happening.

I hardly use cash at all and will often go weeks at a time with none whatsoever. I typically will take a twenty and a couple of $5s and $1s from my wife's wallet if I know or expect I have some small purchases to make.

This morning is an illustrative example: I was running late and didn't have time to eat breakfast at home. There's a place that sells good breakfast burritos for about $2 and change, so I grabbed a $5 and used that. When it's a small local business, and it's a small dollar amount, I try to use cash if I can. I think it's nice gesture so they don't get hit too hard on the merchant fees.

My wife never carries cash, I try and keep a $20 on me at least. At the moment I have about $60. Not actually sure why, I probably took out a $100 when we were going out with some friends downtown and I wasn't sure if I would end up paying for parking or something with cash.

I never use cash if I can help it, and pay off my credit card each month.

I know some people who keep a couple grand on hand in case the world ends or something...

I have 15 credit/debit cards. I hardly carry any cash. I only get cash when visiting Japan. And I got a couple hundred before coming to OKC since there are no Wells Fargo banks here but I use my Fidelity Debit card here in the rare times I need cash.

I never carry it until some pre-planned time where I know I will need it. Traveling? Sure, hit an ATM at the airport or at a gas station. Going to the boonies? Hit an ATM at the gas station prior. Going to a concert? Hit the ATM at the gas station beforehand.

Really no reason to carry cash for that long given the number of ATMs around me.

I almost never carry cash. I have exactly $0.75 on my person at the moment, and I will have exactly $0 after a little trip to the soda machine sometime in the next half hour.

Now, when traveling, I do keep at least $100 on hand. But day-to-day, cash in wallet is cash already spent.

The bad part about that was that up until a few months ago, I worked at the money factory. It was considered highly bad form to show up to the cafeteria and pay via card. This was rarely a problem for me, because eating at that cafeteria in general was a damn poor idea.

The scale of your poll is... not what I would have chosen. I have $23 in my wallet right now, a little change in the car, and a embarassingly large ziplock bag of coins back at home I'm not sure what to do with.

Basically I pull $60 out of the ATM every time my wallet drops below $20. I never carry more than $100 unless I'm making a special trip to pay for something in cash. What reason is there to carry $250+ on your person on a regular basis? The only explanations that spring to mind are unsavory or irresponsible.

Actual physical cash? I rarely have more than $40 unless I'm taking it out for a specific purpose.

I often carry more when I'm travelling internationally, although that seems to be less necessary every year. The 2" thick stack of bills that I carried around Mongolia was kind of fun to play with though.

I'm trying to be a bit more organized in my personal financial situation these days. One question that I've come across is how much cash to keep on hand. Not for spending, directly, but quickly available dollars that I don't need to go to an ATM for.

What better place to start than The Boardroom?

On person:$26. 2 tens, a 5, and a 1. Coin purse optional.

In car:$50. 1 twenty, 2 tens, 10 ones.

In house: $250. Multiples of the car scenario, except you really still only need ten ones. Increment those extra ones to tens. Money should be in a location with personal docs and secured appropriately.

I try to keep between $100 and $200 in my wallet for unexpected cash-only requirements. Most everything goes on my rewards card(s), though, so these days it'll be two or three months between having to replenish that.

I typically carry between $10 and $100 at any given time and my wife carries about $20 to $60, and our monthly ATM withdrawals are about $300. So you can see that we don't spend much cash.

I keep meaning to put a few hundred bucks somewhere in the house for food deliveries and whatnot, but I never get around to it. I carry three credit cards and a debit card and those are how I generally pay for things.

I usually like to keep $50-$150+ on me. I also keep a few hundred locked up in case I have an urgent need for cash like an extended power outage or something that requires me to gtfo in a hurry. I used to take out $80-100 but the last year or so, $100 just doesn't go that far anymore in the DC area.

I use cash for a lot of my lunches and any bars/clubs and I also do group dinners where having cash is nice.

I also have a jar of change which is probably around $80 at this point. I plan on cashing it in around my birthday or sometimes I use it for Amazon gift codes that I can use for casual gifts for people throughout the year.

I try to keep at least $500 USD cash at all times, hidden away somewhere safe (like right by my passport). It's enough to cover the fair for an international plane ticket and/or medical emergency. In a country such as Egypt, due to current poor state of the government and economy, such as 20-30% food inflation, shortages of fuel and electricity, periodic runs on the local currency, bank and ATM withdrawal limitations (if they work), and also a shortage of USD cash (must use black market). So remember, when the revolution happens, gold won't save you, USD$ will lead the way.

By the way, the last time I asked about checking account balances, it was stated that they should be in the range on 2-3 times monthly expenses. Would everyone agree to thatas a min or max?

I'd say it's about right. In the highly unlikely event that I'd ever need more than that plus whatever I could advance on a couple of credit cards, it would be easy to liquidate money from an index fund investment or something.

I'm trying to come up with a situation other than a ransom where I'd need that much cash within a couple of days though, and I'm not really able to think of one.

By the way, the last time I asked about checking account balances, it was stated that they should be in the range on 2-3 times monthly expenses. Would everyone agree to thatas a min or max?

I'd say it's about right. In the highly unlikely event that I'd ever need more than that plus whatever I could advance on a couple of credit cards, it would be easy to liquidate money from an index fund investment or something.

I'm trying to come up with a situation other than a ransom where I'd need that much cash within a couple of days though, and I'm not really able to think of one.

^That. I keep about 1 month of expenses as a cushion and sweep the rest into investments.

The OP definitely was unclear. I don't keep any cash stashed at home, but this thread has me thinking it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep a couple hundy in the safe with the passports and stuff. For emergencies, like if the Cubans invaded, f'rinstance.

The OP definitely was unclear. I don't keep any cash stashed at home, but this thread has me thinking it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep a couple hundy in the safe with the passports and stuff. For emergencies, like if the Cubans invaded, f'rinstance.

I try to keep at least $500 USD cash at all times, hidden away somewhere safe (like right by my passport). It's enough to cover the fair for an international plane ticket and/or medical emergency. In a country such as Egypt, due to current poor state of the government and economy, such as 20-30% food inflation, shortages of fuel and electricity, periodic runs on the local currency, bank and ATM withdrawal limitations (if they work), and also a shortage of USD cash (must use black market). So remember, when the revolution happens, gold won't save you, USD$ will lead the way.

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I personally rarely carry more than $20 on me. I use $1 in cash per day, for my morning visit to buy a can of coke at work from the snack store.

Having said that... growing up overseas, cash (in US $$) was king. When I travel internationally, I'll usually keep at least a couple hundred dollars safely tucked away (usually NOT in the wallet).

The primary purpose I keep cash around for is post-Earthquakes. If my town is without power for a few days, cash could be handy.

This. Cards are great until disaster hits.

I started keeping a few hundred in a safe at the house after Katrina and was much better prepared during the OMG-Southern-Tornado-Apocalypse 2 years ago. I also keep at least $50 in my wallet, but it's usually crisp from the bank and sitting folded up behind my AAA card in my wallet, while the cash I would actually spend is in the billfold part of the wallet.

The primary purpose I keep cash around for is post-Earthquakes. If my town is without power for a few days, cash could be handy.

But the cash registers at the places you'd want to buy things from would be out of power too.

Also, you know, looting.

They make these devices called calculators that run on magical things called batteries.

During the long power outage after Sandy quite a few of the little stores around my area were still open...one of the stores was even making hot sandwiches for folks since they had a gas powered grill.